Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
I shiver at the mental image. “What happened?”
“I took him back to Lona in the hope that Vitai could heal him, but he’d lost too much blood. His injuries were extensive, and he didn’t survive the shock.”
That’s sad. “So Kian transmitted his language to you.”
“We needed to communicate if I were to find his family. They deserved to know what had happened to him.” The look in his eyes intensifies as he says, “There’s nothing worse than not knowing.”
Oh, Aruan. I place a hand on his arm. “Is that what you went through when I disappeared?”
He continues to rinse my face, his lips pressed in a hard line. Just when I think he’s not going to answer, he says, “When my mother told me you were dead, I didn’t want to believe it. I kept on feeling your existence the way the mind tricks one into feeling a severed limb that’s no longer there. And then it was just gone. Dead.” His silver eyes grow hard and cold. “I had no choice any longer. I had to accept what the severed connection told me.”
“I’m so sorry,” I say, squeezing his arm. If I could, I would’ve taken that pain away from him.
“But you’re here now.” He brushes the hair back from my forehead. “And that’s more than I could’ve ever hoped for.”
“I’m staying,” I say on the spur of the moment, willing to give my soul to make right all the wrongs that have been done to him.
I can’t explain my impulsive need. I only know I can’t bear his suffering. Not from the past or the present. Even if it means giving up everyone and everything I love, I’ll do it. For him. Because it’s in my make-up. It’s part of my DNA.
Despite the heaviness of the moment, the possessiveness I’ve become so familiar with passes over his features. “I know, my sweet.”
We fall quiet as he takes care of me, each of us wrapped up in our own thoughts, but thanks to the bond, none of those thoughts are completely private. He knows I’m mourning everyone I’ve lost to find him, and I know he knows that a part of me will always long for the people I left behind and that my heart isn’t one hundred percent here.
He cups my face when it’s clean and wipes the water from my cheeks with his thumbs. “Better?”
Trying to lighten the mood, I say, “I won’t say no to a bath.”
He straightens and offers me a hand. “It’ll have to be a shower. They don’t have pools in Marikanea.”
“Why not?”
“In Lona, the Water Palace is fed from an underground source. Here, they have to rely on rainwater that accumulates in large containers.”
We leave the tunnel behind and round another cliff. A gasp catches in my throat. The scene in front of us is like something from a fairytale. The rock formations are carved into a myriad of canyons. Towers and turrets shaped by nature create a giant sandcastle. Great pans of water in dams with clay walls shine like mirrors in between. The pointed stone cones that rise like giant termite heaps from the ground are reflected in the flat surfaces of the water. A few windows are visible here and there.
“If Lona is known for its palace that reaches the sky,” Aruan says, “Marikanea is known for its palace that touches the belly of Zerra. The royal family constructed their new palace here when the volcano eruption destroyed the old one and half of their city.”
We walk to the edge of the cliff. A deep canyon runs like a moat around the palace, making access on foot impossible. The cliff is too steep to climb down, and there are no bridges.
Aruan holds out a hand. “Shall we?”
I sense his intention to create a portal for us.
A cryodrakon is hunting for lizards between the rocks. It would’ve been nice to see the palace from his back. I bet the aerial perspective makes an impressive picture. I’m a lightweight, much lighter than I should be thanks to all my childhood diseases. But a pterosaur won’t be able to carry the weight of a normal full-grown Alit, let alone Aruan’s. So I take his hand and hold on for the sensations that come with going through a portal.
We walk out onto a large, flat surface between two dams. My aunt waits outside, her white dress billowing in the wind that has suddenly picked up.
She embraces me before offering Aruan her wrist. He presses his wrist against hers in the customary greeting. By now, the wind is so strong that it’s pelting my face with sand.
“Quickly.” Evolet grabs my hand. “It’s the eastern wind. We’d better get inside.”
“What’s the eastern wind?” I ask as she drags me toward a cavernous entrance.
“It’s strong enough to blow an Alit away.” She rushes us inside. “And when it does, those unfortunate men and women are never found.”